CHAPTER XIII.
THK PONT CARRIAGE.
So soon as daylight came, I made a swift cold water
toilet, and got out into the open air, with a solemn resolu-
tion to see the hated interior of that bed-room no more.
Stanley Lake did not appear that day; 'Wylder was
glowering and abstracted — worse company than usual;
and Rachel seemed to have quite passed from his recollec-
tion.
While Rachel Lake was, as usual, busy in her little
garden that day, Lord Chelford, on his way to the town,
by the pretty mill-road, took off his hat to her with a
smiling salutation, and, leaning on the paling, he said —
"I often wonder how you make your flowers grow here
— you have so little sun among the trees — and yet, it is
so pretty and flowery; it remains in my memory as if the
sun were always shining specially on this little garden."
Miss Lake laughed.
"I am very proud of it. They try not to blow, but I
never let them alone till they do. See all my watering-pots,
and pruning-scissors, my sticks, and bass-mat, and glass
covers. Skill and industry conquer churlish nature — and
this is my Versailles."
"I don't believe in those sticks, and scissors, and-
watering-pots. You won't tell your secret; but I'm sure
it's an influence — you smile and whisper to them."
She smiled— without raising her eyes — on the flower
she was tying up; and, indeed, it was such a smile as
must have made it happy — and she said, gaily —